Australia news LIVE NSW records 98 new local COVID-19 cases Victoria lockdown to be extended as state records 16 new cases
1 of 6
NSW Health has confirmed reports of the death of another person with COVID-19.
The woman, in her 50s, was a resident of south-western Sydney and acquired the virus from a close contact.
It’s the fifth death in NSW from this present outbreak, and the 61st overall.
A number of testing sites across Melbourne are over capacity and are turning away people seeking to get tested.
A packed Albert Park drive-through testing clinic today. Credit:Getty Images
Sites no longer accepting entry include Aughtie Walk at Albert Park, the Casey Fields clinic in Cranbourne run by Monash Health, the walk through at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Parkville, the IPC Health clinics in Deer Park and at Victoria University in Werribee East, the Montague Street site in South Melbourne and the Akoonah Park site in Berwick.
There is also a wait of more than four hours at the Eastern Health clinic at Box Hill Hospital, according to the Health Department’s official site that monitors testing wait times.
Meanwhile, private school St Margaret’s Berwick Grammar is undergoing a deep clean today after reporting that a senior staff member tested positive on the weekend.
The school is closed to all staff and students, including the children of essential workers. The staff member’s close contacts have been directed to isolate for 14 days.
All other students and staff across the school’s three campuses and early learning centre have been classified tier 2 and asked to get tested and isolate themselves until a negative result is received.
Eight out of 14 crew members from a suspected COVID-stricken cargo ship were tested for the virus in the West Australian port of Fremantle on Monday morning.
The BBC California docked at 9am and eight workers with COVID-like symptoms briefly left the ship, with masks and gloves on, to be tested for the virus by health authorities before returning to their quarters.
WA Premier Mark McGowan said test results were expected to come back on Monday afternoon and the rest of the crew would be tested for COVID-19 if there were any positive cases.
Mr McGowan said it was hoped the crew could remain on board the ship to be quarantined given the potential for spreading the virus if they had to be taken to hospital or the airport in the case of replacement mariners being brought in.
“It is essential we don’t let our hard work be undone,†he said. “We’re seeing what’s happening in NSW and Victoria as we speak and we certainly don’t want any of that to come here.â€
The ship was scheduled to berth in Kwinana, south of Perth, to take on a cargo of ammonium nitrate. It left Egypt last month before docking at three ports in virus-stricken Indonesia on July 11. The crew members started showing signs of sickness from July 12.
Mr McGowan said it was not known how long the ship would stay in Fremantle given it could become inoperable if the whole crew became sick.
Victoria’s list of COVID-19 exposure sites is fast approaching 300, with another seven, including more public transport routes, added this afternoon.
The new exposure sites are among 19 added today. Four supermarkets are in the mix: a Coles in Phillip Island, a Ritchies IGA in Ringwood North in Melbourne’s east, Coles Glenferrie also in Melbourne’s east, and a Woolworths in Fitzroy in the city’s inner north.
Two exposure sites added this afternoon are tier-1 sites, meaning people who have visited them during specified time frames have to immediately get tested for COVID-19 and quarantine for 14 days. The rest are tier-2 sites, meaning people who have visited them at the specified times have to get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result.
The new exposure sites are:
The public transport routes come on top of the more than 20 health authorities have identified as exposure sites in the past few days.
The state’s Health Department on Monday afternoon urged passengers to register their myki public transport travel cards, saying, “with many passengers either not touching on [services] or using a registered myki, it has been difficult for contact tracers to identify the exact service and time†where exposures happen.
“When conducting interviews, the Department of Health will ask for a myki card number if the person has travelled on public transport,†the department said in a statement.
“Having these details means the Department of Transport can locate exact travel patterns and alert other passengers travelling on those services within hours. Last week 48 per cent of all touch-on’s used a registered myki.â€
The Commonwealth government has so far processed 331,000 disaster payment applications from people in NSW, paying a total of $155 million.
Those numbers are likely to climb after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian shut down the entire construction industry in Sydney over the weekend, leaving thousands more people stranded without work and income.
Federal Government Services Minister Linda Reynolds said the scheme is “demand-driven†and uncapped. She said the measure will remain open as long as Commonwealth-defined hotspots remain in place.
Victorians will be eligible from Friday once they have been in lockdown for a week (if it gets extended that long).
Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan is addressing the media at 2.15pm (AEST). Watch below.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has produced a video ad on behalf of Victoria’s arts community encouraging people to get vaccinated if they can.
It is titled “Performance of a Lifetime†and stands in some contrast to the government ad depicting a woman in intensive care struggling to breathe.
“We’ve trained for a lifetime to perform for audiences,†the video description states. “Now we call on our community and the Victorian public to give us the performance of their lifetime; to keep our community safe, and to keep our loved arts and entertainment industry alive.â€
Anyone who attended the following venues is a close contact and must get tested and isolate for 14 days:
Anyone who attended the following venues is a casual contact who must immediately get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.
Today a very large slice of the nation’s schooling is being done around kitchen tables alongside parents “at workâ€.
We’d like to hear from readers on how they are finding this experience.
How are you making home schooling work at your place? What methods you have tried and tossed?
What do your kids say they want?
Use the form below to tell us what’s happening at your place. Please leave a phone number if you’re happy to talk to a journalist.
Now that the dust has settled on the NSW and Victorian COVID press conferences, here’s a summary of the day so far:
1 of 6
0 Response to "Australia news LIVE NSW records 98 new local COVID-19 cases Victoria lockdown to be extended as state records 16 new cases"
Post a Comment